General Notes

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All we know for certain about Jan OP DIJK is his name, and that is based solely on his son Louris' use of the patronymic "Jansen", or "the son of Jan". John is the English equivalent of Jan, as Lawrence is the equivalent of Louris.

We can't say for certain if Jan was really from the Netherlands. If what Louris said about his place of birth being in Husum, Schleswig-Holstein (then under Danish control), the family origins may have been DANISH. Schleswig-Holstein had a habit of not remaining under the control of one country for long stretches of time however, and Germany wanted it. It is possible that the OPDYCK family may have had German origins too. Gysbert Op Dyck was born in Wesel, Germany. Something to think about, but no one knows for sure.

In spite of the above, the research done by Leonard Eckstein Opdycke for publication in "The Op Dyck Genealogy" (1889) uncovered a number of generations of males who used the name "op den Dyck" in the Elburg area back as far as 1355, so the available evidence appears to continue to support the Elburg, Gelderland nesting area for our family.